I might need to get myself a utility belt, for all of my phones! We signed up with T-Mobile before we left home because of their "over 55" and "International" Plans. Besides keeping our US phone number, which is handy for our US banking, bills, etc, they use the GSM network standards which most of the world uses. Good call.

Just like with my instant coffee research, figuring out how to communicate here has been interesting.

From left to right, these phones are my iPhone SE, our budget LG we bought here in 2018, Indays older iPhone Max, and my new Samsung A52s.

I should have taken notes when I was experimenting, but this is what I remember. Even though the iPhones are not on any Phil plan, their GPS maps work great, and I receive most text messages in real-time. I can text and call back and forth between the iPhone and the cheap LG, which has a new sim card and a small amt of data. This is handy when we split up while shopping. I needed a Philippine phone number for things we're doing here in Cebu, and the Samsung is my first new phone in several years. The SE was a Refurbished model. The Sansung is handy for signing up for things like Home Wifi, etc, and it was convenient when the Bed salesperson called about our delivery on Tuesday. I can receive texts on the Samsung, but I haven't succeeded in Replying to texts yet. I'm getting a headache. Haha.